S’pore Airlines to roll out new closed-toe shoes for female cabin crew from January 2027
They will no longer need to swap between two pairs of shoes, but wear one throughout the flight.
Effective January 2027, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will discontinue the traditional open-toe sandals worn by female cabin crew members and replace them with new closed-toe wedge shoes created by the local brand Pazzion. The decision stems from a review aimed at improving safety, comfort, and support for cabin crew members, while ensuring compliance with operational requirements. The final design was selected after rigorous testing of various prototypes during actual flights.
Currently, SIA's female cabin crew members alternate between two types of footwear depending on the phase of the flight: open-toe sandals for greeting passengers upon boarding, and closed-toe slingbacks for take-off. Upon landing, they revert to the sandals for welcoming passengers off the plane. The slingbacks were introduced in 2001, following the tragic SQ006 crash in Taiwan, in which questions arose regarding whether the open-toe sandals could hinder the cabin crew's ability to assist passengers in evacuating the aircraft.
However, SIA denied any connection between the sandals and the incident, stating that they had already been seeking a replacement since September 1999.
The new closed-toe wedge shoes will succeed both the sandals and slingbacks, allowing flight attendants to wear a single pair throughout the flight for enhanced practicality. These shoes will feature thicker lambskin insoles for improved support and will bear SIA's distinctive batik motif with color options tailored to each crew member's rank within the uniform. A prototype image shared on Xiaohongshu depicts the wedge heel at the same height as the current slingbacks.
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